CICINNURUS REGIUS. 



KING BIRD OF PARADISE. 



THE KING BIRD OF PARADISE, Edw. Birds, vol. iii. (1750) pi. 111. 



PARADISEA REGIA, Linn. Syst. Nat. (1766) vol. i. p. 166— Gmel. Syst. Nat. (1788) vol. i. part i. p. 400— Lath. Ind. Ornith. vol. ii. (1790) 

 p. 194.— Shaw, Gen. Zool. vol. vii. part ii. (1809) p. 497, pi. 67.— Bechst. Kurze Uebers. (1811) p. 132. sp. 4.— Less. Voy. Goquille 

 (1826), Atlas, pi. 26, (text) vol. i. p. 688.— Cuv. Reg. Anim. (1829) vol. i. p. 427— Wagl. Syst. Av. (1826) sp. 7.— Gray, Proc. Zool. 

 Soc. (1858) p. 181. sp. 74, (1861) p. 436— Id. Hand-list of Birds, part ii. (1870) p. 16. no. 6252.— Schleg. Mus. Pays-Bas (1867), 

 p. 88— Wall. Proc. Zool. Soc. (1862) p. 160.— Id. Ibis, (1859) p. 111.— Gray, Gen. of Birds, vol. ii. p. 323. sp. 5— Schleg. Handl. 

 Dierk. t. i. p. 332, (Atlas) pi. iv. fig. 46.— Wall. Malay Archip. vol. ii. pp. 131 & 248— Schleg. Journ. fur Ornith. (1861) p. 385.— Schleg. 

 Tijdsch. Dierk. parts iv. & v. pp. 17 & 49. 



LE MANUCODE, Buff. Plan. Enlum. (1774) p. 192, t. 496.— Briss. Hist, des Ois. vol. iii. (1775) p. 163, pi. xiii.— Levaill. Hist. Nat. des Ois. 

 Parad. (1806) vol. i. pis. 7 & 8— Vieill. Ois. Dor. vol. ii. (1802) pi. 5, p. 16. 



LE PETIT OISEAU DE PARADIS, Briss. Ornith. vol. ii. p. 136, pi. xiii. (1760). 



LE ROI DES OISEAUX DE PARADIS, Sonn. Voy. Nouv. Guin. (1776) vol. i. p. 156, pi. 95. 



KING PARADISE-BIRD, Lath. Gen. Syn. vol. ii. (1782) p. 475.— Id. Gen. Hist. Birds, vol. iii. (1822) p. 188. sp. 5. 



CICINNURUS SPINTURNIX, Less. Ois. Parad. C1835) Syn. p. 14. sp. 6.— Id. Hist. Nat. p. 182, pis. 16, 17, & 18. 



CICINNURUS REGIUS, Vieill. Gal. des Ois. vol. i. (1825) p. 146, pi. xcvi— Less. Traite d'Orn. (1831) p. 338.— Wall. Ibis, (1861) p. 287.— 



Shaw, Gen. Zool. (1826) vol. xiv. p. 77.— Von Rosenb. Journ. fur Ornith. (1864) p. 130. 

 CICINNURUS REGIA, Bonap. Consp. Gen. Av. (1851) p. 413. sp. l.-Gray, List Gen. Birds (1855), p. 65. 

 Burong rajah, Malay. Goby-goby, Natives of Aru Islands. 



Hab. New Guinea, Aru Islands, Mysol (Wallace) ; islands of Sorong, Salwattie, Wokam, and Wonoumbai, of the 

 Aru Group (Rosenberg) ; Jobie (Sciilegel). 



Among all the members of the Paradiseidte, none excels the present little gem in the beauty and brilliancy of its 

 plumage. Although it has always been a great desideratum in collections, both public and private, and all travellers 

 who have visited the islands where it is found have tried in every way to procure it, still we know little, if any thing, 

 of its economy or habits. Mr. Wallace first met with it in the Aru Islands. He says, "the first two or three days 

 of our stay here were very wet, and I obtained but few insects or birds ; but at length when I was beginning to 

 despair, my boy Baderoon returned one day with a specimen which repaid me for months of delay and expectation. 

 It was a small bird, a little less than than the Thrush. Merely in arrangement of colours and texture of plumage, 

 this little bird was a gem of the first water ; yet these comprised only half its strange beauty. Springing from each 

 side of the breast, and ordinarily lying concealed under the wings, were little tufts of greyish feathers about two 

 inches long, and each terminated by a broad band of intense emerald-green. These plumes can be raised at the 

 will of the bird, and spread out into a pair of elegant fans when the wings are elevated. But this is not the only 

 ornament. The two middle feathers of the tail are in the form of slender wires about five inches long, and which 

 diverge in a beautiful curve. About half an inch of the end of this wire is webbed on the outer side only, and 

 coloured of a fine metallic green ; and being curled spiraUy inwards they form a pair of elegant glittering buttons, 

 hanging five inches below the body, and at the same distance apart. These two ornaments, the breast-fans and the 

 spiral-tipped tail-wires, are altogether unique, not occurring on any other species of the eight thousand different birds 

 that are known to exist upon the earth, and, combined with the most exquisite beauty of plumage, render this one of 

 the most perfectly lovely of the many lovely productions of nature. My transports of admiration and delight quite 

 amused my Aru hosts, who saw nothing more in 'Burong raja' than we do in the Robin or Goldfinch. Thus 

 one of my objects in coming to the far East was accomplished. I had obtained a specimen of the King Bird of 

 Paradise, which had been described by Linnaeus from skins preserved in a mutilated state by the natives. I knew 

 how few Europeans had ever beheld the perfect little organism I now gazed upon, and how very imperfectly it was still 



